CH. IX JOUBNEY THBOUGH MINAHASSA 211 



At the beginning of April 1886 I received an invitation 

 from a gentleman named Eijkschroeff, a former opzichter 

 of the M. H. V. in Talisse, to visit the coffee garden of which 

 he was then the manager, at a Uttle village on the slopes of 

 the Kelelonde mountain in the Tondano district. I was 

 very glad to be able to accept this invitation, for I was 

 very anxious to see something of the beautiful mountain 

 scenery of Minahassa before I left, and I also had hopes 

 that the cool breezes of that high district would so restore 

 my health as to enable me to return to my work on the 

 coral reefs of the coast. 



The Eesident of Manado kindly offered me a seat in a 

 carriage that was to take him and two of the government 

 officials to Tondano and the neighbom-hood. We started 

 at about ten o'clock from Manado on AprU 3, and after a 

 long and rather tedious journey we reached the house of 

 Mr. Broers, the Controleur of Tondano, at about eight 

 o'clock the same evening. 



Starting from Manado in a small carriage drawn by 

 two oxen, passing by the little market-place of Negori baru, 

 and the nutmeg and vanilla gardens of some of the leading 

 planters, we arrived at Lotta, our first halting-place, a 

 distance of six paals,' in about two hours. The road from 

 Lotta to the next station, Tomohon, is very steep, and 

 runs circuitously along the slopes of the Lokon mountains. 

 Some of the views the traveller gets as he is slowly 

 dragged along are extremely magnificent. At one spot 

 the wide expanse of Manado Bay, with its deep blue waters 

 and evergreen guardian islands, Manado tuwa, Siladen, 

 and Bunakin, spreads out beneath his feet ; at another the 

 broad and fertile plains of the river valley, extending from 

 the Lokon to the distant Klabat mountains, form a magnifi- 

 cent panorama of fine rich scenery ; and a little farther on 



' One paal is approximately equivalent to one English mile. 



p 2 



